


An Adventure is a lot More Tiring When It's With You

by Acexual_Attorney



Series: the dream team [5]
Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Crack, chenle and jisung give him high blood pressure, mark is a stressed boy, pls save him
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-08
Updated: 2017-09-08
Packaged: 2018-12-25 05:11:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,867
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12028845
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Acexual_Attorney/pseuds/Acexual_Attorney
Summary: the maknaes are hiding something and the hyungline is determined to get to the bottom of itor, chenle and jisung have a stowaway cat and it's up to all of the dreamies to find her home before the manager finds out





	An Adventure is a lot More Tiring When It's With You

**Author's Note:**

> IM SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG ALSO IDK Y ITS ALMOST 3K SO???? at least its not short rip

“I think the maknaes are hiding something,” Renjun said, suspicion clouding his eyes into a squint as he stared at Chenle and Jisung’s bedroom door. Mark nods from beside him and Donghyuck is suddenly glad Renjun and Mark aren’t his actual parents because if they were, he would never make it out of the house without being interrogated.

“What makes you say that?” Jaemin asked, only briefly glancing up at Renjun and Mark from where he was lounging on the couch.

Renjun made a face before explaining, “Chenle offered to do the dishes after supper for three days in a row, so he’s trying to get on our good side. Plus, they’ve been spending a hell of a lot of time in their room.”

“Yeah,” Mark said, “As soon as they get home, they go to their room and only come out for dinner, and after dinner, Jisung goes right back to their room.”

“Maybe they’re just being antisocial,” Jeno shrugged.

“You know how puberty can be,” Donghyuck added.

“They’re still being suspicious,” Renjun insisted, gaze never faltering from glaring holes into the maknaes’ room door.

“So we’re going to ambush them,” Mark concluded, already making his way to the maknaes’ room with Renjun close by his side.

“Isn’t that, like, an invasion of privacy?” Jaemin asked, but didn’t make a move to stop them.

“Privacy is a concept only for the bourgeois and the bourgeois aren’t allowed in this household,” Renjun said with a tone of finality so that no one questioned him except Donghyuck who quietly whispered, “ _What the fuck is a bourgeois?_ ”, to which Jeno just shrugged.

And, since everyone in the dorm feeds off drama like it’s chocolate, Jaemin, Donghyuck, and Jeno were soon lurking behind Mark and Renjun to watch them creep towards the door. Renjun held up his fingers, silently counting off a _1, 2, 3,_  Mark flinging open the door a beat after the third finger was held up.

“Hey, hyungs, what’s up?” was the only question posed by Chenle. He didn’t seemed bothered at all by everyone suddenly barging into their room.

Everything looked normal enough. There was a pile of dirty laundry pushed against the wall, collecting dust until Jisung or Chenle mustered up the courage to try and do the laundry. Chenle and Jisung’s beds were pushed together for “optimal gossiping”, which was just code for they watch each other play video games at night and cuddle while they sleep (Renjun had caught them early in the morning before they got up and it was honest-to-god the most heart-wrenching adorable thing he had ever witnessed in his short life). Both maknaes were sitting on Jisung’s bed, Chenle looking a lot more relaxed than Jisung with a book in his lap and head tilted at his hyungs in the doorway. Jisung looked slightly panicked, eyes wider than usual and hands hidden behind his back, his chest struggling to make it look like he was breathing normally.

“Spill it,” Renjun demanded.

“Spill what?” Chenle asked, cocking his head to the side in confused innocence, eyes peering up at Renjun in curiousity. Damn, the kid was a good actor.

“What are you hiding?” Mark asked this time, taking on his ‘I’m-the-eldest-hyung-and-the-leader-if-you-don’t-obey-me-I’ll-tell-Taeyong-and-then-you’ll-be-in-a-whole-new-world-of-hurt’ voice.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, hyung,” Jisung said. His voice was a bit off, higher pitched and more stressed. Fucker was never good at lying.

Just as Donghyuck was about to lose interest and drag Jaemin and Jeno back into the living room with him, a faint and muffled _mre-owh_ sounded from behind Jisung.

A beat of silence.

A slightly louder and more insistent _mriip._

“Shit,” Jisung said, straight faced, before all hell broke loose.

“Why do you have a cat?”

“When did you bring home a kitty?”

“Can we keep it?”

“I’ve always wanted a cat!”

“How have you been feeding it?”

“ _Oh my god it’s so cute."_

Jisung had given up on hiding the cat, so he brought it onto his lap. It was a beautiful brown and white cat with bright green eyes. It’s fur was unbelievably fluffy, making it look like a ball of hair with two eyes peering around the room, ears twitching in curiosity.

“We’re not keeping it.”

Everyone immediately turned against Mark.

“Why not?” Donghyuck whined, “Look at how precious it is!”

“Yeah, hyung, she’s really well behaved!” Chenle piped up, a hand subconsciously scratching underneath the cat’s chin.

“Because we’re not allowed to have cats in the dorm! I don’t wanna get kicked out! Plus, Jeno’s allergic and it’s too expensive to keep a cat,” Mark explained. He looked pained, knowing full well that he would love to keep the kitty, but it was just impractical. He hated being the oldest hyung because that meant he had to be the voice of reason (and the bad guy).

“I’m not allergic!” Jeno tried to deny, but, almost as if it was destined, his nose twitched and he sneezed. “Damn,” he cursed beneath his breath.

Mark blinked at Jeno before continuing like nothing happened, “Also just look at her, she’s way too calm to just be a stray, she has to be domesticated.”

“Does she have a collar?” Renjun asked, slowly making his way towards the cat still on Jisung’s lap to either see if there was a collar or pet her, probably both.

Renjun gently scratched the cat’s head with one hand and searched her neck with the other. Through the folds of fluffy fur, he felt a thin band of silk and a metal oval. He made a small sound of triumph and parted the fur to reveal a light pink collar with a golden tag flashing in the light.

“Whoever her owners are, they must be rich,” Renjun noted.

“We’re her owners, now,” Jisung said and pulled the cat closer into his lap. She purred and rubbed her head against his stomach.

Renjun frowned and shook his head. “I’m sorry guys, but we have to take her back to her owners.

“But we already named her,” Chenle whined, just one more denial away from sliding to the floor and groveling.

“Her name is Gay Bowser and we love her,” Jisung said.

“You need to spend less time on the internet.”

“You should be one to talk.”

Donghyuck sneered at Jaemin.

“If the cat goes, I go,” Chenle crossed his arms and pouted, making a point of scooting closer to the cat licking itself in Jisung’s lap.

“Bye,” Mark waved a dismissing hand towards the door.

Chenle gasped, hurt all over his face, before pouting once again and begging, “ _Please_ ,”, dragging out the vowels the most his lungs would let him (Which was a lot, apparently, because he looked like a broken .jpg just going _eeee_ ).

“Whoever the owner is, they live in Seocho-gu,” Renjun said over Chenle’s high-pitched white noise.

Mark nodded and gently picked up th _e_ fluffball of a cat, much to Jisung’s chargin.

* * *

 

It was far too hot outside for seven teenage boys to be lugging a fully grown cat across southern Seoul, but the trains didn’t allow animals on them and Mark would rather die than have their manager find out about the maknaes’ smuggling a cat. None of them were old enough to drive yet (even though Chenle was full and willing to illegally drive the manager’s car), so Mark led the six children he was regrettably in charge of as orderly as he could by using the buddy system and also doing a head count every five minutes.

“Now I know why Taeyong hyung is so stressed at the airport,” Mark muttered.

“What?” Jaemin asked.

“Nothing,” Mark shook his head and turned to Donghyuck, who was tasked to carrying the cat. “What’s the address, again?”

Donghyuck did some digging in the folds of fur on the kitty’s neck so he could read off the address again.

“I think we’re getting close,” Jaemin chimed in, reading aloud the house numbers of the very rich apartment complexes they were passing. They were on the right street, so they _had_ to be close.

“Thank _god_ ,” Mark huffed out what was supposed to be a sigh of relief but sounded more strained than it should have been. He glanced around the sidewalk to count again, “Okay, one, two, three, four…” there weren't two blond heads, _goddamnit._

“Hey Renjun.”

“Yes, hyung?”

“Where the fuck are Jisung and Chenle?”

Jeno butted in by pointing his finger across the street at a small café. “They said they were going to get frappés or something.”

Mark just wanted to melt into the pavement. He was never going to have kids.

 

* * *

  
  
After making a scene in a very poor ajumma’s café, Donghyuck and Jeno helped Mark drag two whining five year olds by the ear across the street.

“I swear to god I can never bring you two anywhere. What if someone took you? What if someone recognized you and decided to kidnap you? Do you have any idea the horrible things that could have happening to you? We could have gotten coffee after dropping the cat off, but now you two are grounded for running off,” Mark ranted, trying to keep his voice low to show his disappointment.

Chenle let out a simple, “Yes, _Mom_ ,” while Jisung decided to be difficult and whine even more.

“But hyung, I’m 16! And Chenle is 17! We’re old enough to go out by ourselves!”

Mark looked at Jisung with a very pressed look, but didn’t say anything. He just led them back to Renjun and Jaemin on the other side of the street, still cooing and taking selfies with the cat.

“Someone got in trouble,” Jaemin noted in a sing-song voice, but never breaking his smile + peace sign pose with the cat. Renjun snapped a few pictures and said, “Rip,” as he scrolled through the photos he took.

Mark wished there was a camera near so he could spike it and show through his unimpressed gaze how completely stressed out yet uncaring he was at that point, but they were just on a street in Seochu-gu and not in a studio, so he just opted for sighing and (gently) taking the cat and walked off in the direction he hoped the owner’s house was in, not bothering to see if the others were following him because if they got lost it was their fault not his, sue him.

And, apparently, Mark set off in the right direction, because less than a block away, he found himself (and thankfully the other dream kids) in front of a tall apartment building so expensive there was even a doorman to greet the tenants.

They walked in, bowing to the doorman and trying their best to not get their dirty shoes on what looked like a very expensive rug just in the entrance. While the kids ogled at the high ceiling and fragile gilded chandeliers, Mark tried to find the room the cat belonged in.

“Her tag says room 839,” Donghyuck read from the tag after taking his time digging through the scruff on her neck.

“That means she lives on the 8th floor, right?” Jeno asked, which Mark replied with a simple nod.

“It’d be better to ask, though,” he said.

“Asking is for pussies.”

Mark looked after Jaemin, who had set off in the direction of the elevator, then down at the cat still cuddled in his arms. When he looked back up, the others were right behind Jaemin, waiting for the elevator to arrive. Mark sighed.

“You’re technically a pussy,” he whispered to the cat in English, “But the kids like to be difficult.” The cat just _mirrp_ ed in agreement.

 

* * *

  
  
Finding the floor was easy, but finding the actual room number seemed to be more effort than it was worth. Jisung swore up and down they’ve been going in circles for the past fifteen minutes because this is the third time they’ve passed room 854. Renjun said that’s impossible because they’ve taken two lefts and a right, but Jisung insists.

After taking a small break at a vending machine Donghyuck claimed they’ve passed before but Jeno argued that it’s a different one because the last three didn’t take ₩5,000 bills and this one does, Jaemin slouched against the wall and voiced their defeat.

“This is where we die,” he lamented, pressing the cold cola Mark bought for them to share against his forehead.

Chenle nodded and sat next to him, snatching the drink so he could open it and gulp most of it down before Jaemin could grab it back. “I don’t want to die in an apartment building,” he said after Jaemin finally pried the can out of his hand.

“There’s no way this is an actual apartment building, though, right?” Donghyuck said, “This is, like, an _Alice in Wonderland_ novel, right?”

Mark seemed to have lost all resolve he previously had and softly hit his head against the wall. It was his only day off in a month, he could have stayed home and relaxed or got some homework done but no, he had to find a home for a cat that cost more than all of them combined. “If you find the bandersnatch, let me know so he can kill me,” Mark said, voice dull as he rhythmically thudded his head against the maroon wallpaper.

“Fucking nerd,” was all Jeno could say before Jisung was frantically trying to get their attention. They all ignored him so they could lament more.

“You know,” Renjun said from the floor next to Chenle where he decided to take up residence, arm thrown over his face in shame, “It’s not that bad of a place to die. At least it has air conditioning.”

Donghyuck nodded and crouched down to pat Renjun’s stomach. “Injunnie knows what it’s about.”

“Hey guys-”

“There’s a vending machine so we could make it at least a few more days before starving to death,” Jeno noted. Mark was now the only hyung standing up.

“If our manager doesn’t kill us first for getting lost in an apartment complex of all things,” Mark said blandly. He lost his soul somewhere around the third floor.

“It’d be a swifter death,” Jaemin said.

“Guys really-”

“Swift doesn’t mean it’s better,” Donghyuck shook his head. “Manager hyung would probably torture us first, anyways.”

“I think Taeyong hyung would do more damage to us than anyone else,” Chenle threw in his two cents.

“Can you just-”

“Yeah, Taeyong hyung is scary,” Jeno agreed.

“At least he buys us food, though,” Renjun pointed out.

Jaemin nodded and said, “He could be wor-”

“ _Oh my god can you guys shut up for two goddamn seconds._ ”

The hyungs blinked up at Jisung, who looked ready to pull his hair out. They said nothing except for Mark, who said, “Watch your language.”

Jisung closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and wondered briefly if the media would blame him for murdering his groupmates in cold blood. After deciding it wasn’t worth it, he opened his eyes and said as calmly as he could, “I think I found the room.”

“The fuck? Why didn’t you say so?”

Jisung wanted to pull out his hair.

Turned out the room was just down the hall and to the right, but since everyone (omit Jisung) is blind, they almost missed it. Mark decided to put Jisung and Chenle in charge of knocking on the door for a multitude of reasons. 1) They were the youngest, 2) They’re the one’s that got them all in this situation in the first place, and 3) Hopefully, since they were so young and still had their baby faces, it would go more smoothly if whoever’s cat this was had a soft spot for 9th graders.

After a lot of Chenle hyping Jisung up, Donghyuck just reached around them and knocked on the door for them.

The door opened slowly. Jisung looked like he was about to shit his pants because this is the exact thing you would see in a horror movie where everyone died a slow and horrible death. Jisung didn’t like horror movies.

But instead of a monster or old hag on the other side of the door, an elderly ajumma was hunched in the threshold, squinting up at the two maknaes.

Mark forced them to hand off the cat with a quick explanation as to how they came across the cat, and then apologize for taking so long to get the cat back to her.

She thanked them for returning “Hayangi” tried to invite them in for something to eat, but there was a scent coming from her apartment that smelled like a mix between marijuana and vanilla incense, so Renjun insisted that they had somewhere to be. (That “somewhere” was their dorm, where Jisung and Chenle would be grounded for the next year, but she didn’t have to know that).

The door was slammed closed and Chenle wrapped an arm around Jisung, who was starting to sniffle. Mark would feel bad if this entire trip wasn’t such a pain in the ass.

“So long Gay Bowser,” Jisung whispered at the door before turning away and trying to hold in his tears.

**Author's Note:**

> did i write this just to make a mario 64 joke? yes  
> do i also have a writing blog? [yes](http://polybooseoksoon.tumblr.com/)


End file.
